Historical Materialism Joshua Cohen

On the Track of Reason Essays in Honor of Kai Nielsen ___ EDITED BY Rodger Beehler, David Copp, and Bela Szabados Itjj fa us/ -:5 'A~ Westview Press \I-" BOULDER * SAN FRANCISCO * OXFORD I 10 Minimalist Historical Materialism Joshua Cohen Drawing on an Enlightenment tradition of historical sociology, Karl Marx proposed a comprehensive theory of historical evolution with optimistic implications for the future course of that evolution.' What, if anything, is living in that theory and in the Enlightenment project it exemplifies? A principal attraction of G. A. Cohen's reconstruction of historical materialism lies in its contribution to addressing this question. 2 Self-con- sciously "old-fashioned" (Theory, p. x), Cohen's account of Marxism rep- resents a sharp departure from the tradition of Western Marxism inspired by Georg Lukacs's History and Class Consciousness. Where LukAcs had argued that Marxism is fundamentally a matter of method- the dialectical method of affirming "the all-pervasive supremacy of the whole over the parts"3 -Cohen has emphasized the substantive content of Marxism, locating the "materialist theory of history" at its center. 4 According to Cohen's technological interpretation,historical materialism is animated by an optimistic vision of the broad patterns of social and political evolution. It seeks to explain those patterns by reference to the scarcity-reducing transformations of the "built environment" brought about by human labor5, and to the implications of those transformations for the structure of social order. And, drawing its prognoses from this explanation of the historical patterns, it predicts liberation from toil and from the social adversity consequent on the need for toil. In a nutshell, then, historical materialism embraces four principal contentions: Development Thesis: Human productive power tends to increase over time.6 Social Adaptation Thesis: Social arrangements "rise and fall" according to their contribution to the expansion of productive power. Abundance Thesis: The material adversity that humanity has faced throughout its (pre)history will eventually be overcome. Good Society Thesis: Because "social adversity [is a consequence of material adversity" (History, p. vii), the social adversity that we have faced throughout our (pre)history will eventually be overcome. 156 Joshua Cohen Minimalist HistoricalMaterialism 157 In the course of elaborating and defending this technological interpre- 7 interpretation of the notion tation of historical materialism, Cohen has also suggested some "refor- of fettering that makes two ideas at least ini- tially plausible (History, pp. mulations" of historical materialism designed to address his own "reser- 109-110): (1) class societies will eventually fetter the forces of production; vations" about it (History, p. viii). I agree that the reservations are serious and (2) such fettering will result in a revo- lutionary transformation of the and propose here to examine the reformulations prompted by them. I relations of production. Proceeding from these requirements, Cohen will argue that the reformulated technological interpretation of historical rejects a conception of fettering in which social relations fetter productive materialism, even if true, does not have much power to explain historical forces just in case they cause absolute stagnation in productive development.' 2 change and does not lend much support to optimistic expectations about Instead he advances a relative 8 interpretation of fettering in the future course of social adversity. I do not claim that it is inconsistent which the existing relations fetter the forces when the forces do less with or irrelevant to more substantive historical theorizing with well than they would under an alternative set of opti- relations. mistic implications but rather that it is largely indeterminate Skipping interesting details about the role of static and dynam- and that the ic considerations interest of historical materialism is correspondingly diminished. in the interpretation of "do less well," we arrive at the proposal that the forces are fettered when I conclude that the technological interpretation of historical material- "the trajectory of output levels is less high than it could be" ism has, once more, reached a dead end. Human beings and our social (History, p. 119). When it is, a new system of property relations emerges that promotes world could be such that determinate material conditions impose inter- the higher trajectory. As Cohen points out (History, p. estingly tight constraints on forms of social order. But the problems of 119), the content and the explanatory power of the claim that formulating a plausible theory that expresses this idea suggest property relations adapt to the requirement of that we inducing the highest are not and it is not. If the Enlightenment project of optimism-supporting trajectory of output levels depend on the explication of the notion of a "trajectory historical theorizing can be sustained at all, it needs richer foundations of output levels." He suggests that the rele- vant notion of output may than are provided by the central idea of the technological interpretation: not be captured best by the idea of gross national product and may require instead a that human social relations must adjust to accommodate the growth in more "strongly qualitative" human productive power.9 conception of the "standard of living" (History, pp. 120-21).13 Reformulated to accommodate this proposal, historical materialism would hold that social relations fetter the productive forces and so can be Indeterminacy I: Fettering expected to be replaced when they generate a lower standard of living- a less good The historical materialist project is to explain the "way of life" (History, p. 121)--than some alternative set of evolution of social relations.' 4 interaction by reference to changes in the material constraints on such This "standard-of-living" interaction. Cohen has proposed two main reformulations of historical conception of fettering has one central virtue. By affirming that property materialism, each with important implications for this project. The first, relations change when their change is required for inmmediately addressed to Marx's notion of "fettering,"10 speaks general- a better way of life, it incorporates the optimistic expectations of historical ly to the question How should we characterize the evolving material con- materialism directly into the formulation of the theory. But it also faces two difficulties. First, its straints (the expanding productive power) to which social interaction content is not at all clear and its consequences must adapt? The second, which suggests restrictions on the explanatory for historical materialism as a framework of historical explanation are correspondingly ambition of historical materialism,1i speaks to the question ust how con- uncertain. Second, it suggests, without much elaboration, an account of straining on the forms of social order are the material foundations of history whose main thrust is significant- ly different from the specifically social interaction? In this section I will briefly discuss the former, technological interpretation of historical and in materialism. Here the next section I will examine the latter in some detail. I will focus on the first of these concerns, postponing discussion of the second until 5 Elaborating the Social Adaptation Thesis, historical materialism the concluding section of the chapter.s Putting to the side important questions claims that the pattern of control over productive resources ("the social about the discount rate to be applied to future improvements in relations of production," or "property relations") changes when the evaluating alternative trajectories of output, we face two existing pattern of control impedes or imposes "fetters" on productive issues in understanding and assessing the standard- development. How is the idea of fettering to be interpreted? Given the ot-living conception o tettenng. n tne first place, there are issues about the interpretation of the notion background commitments of historical materialism, what is needed is an of an improvement in an individual's standard of living. For example, does more work and more pay represent 158 JoshuaCohen Minimalist HistoricalMaterialism 15V an improvement in standard of living? Because historical materialism Indeterminacy II: The Scope of Explanation'6 does not suppose that the preferences of individuals settle this question, We come now to the second reformulation. Cohen distinguishes two how are these issues to be interpreted? Second, we need a way to evalu- within the Marxist tradition associated with different answers ate the standard of living under alternative distributionsof advantage, an tendencies to the question How much does historical materialism need to explain? issue that is particularly important in view of the conflict-ridden charac- An inclusive tendency seeks materialist explanations for as wide a range of social change. For example, does a society have a higher standard ter of social phenomena as possible. By contrast, the restrictive tendency- of living if it has a higher average level of advantage, even if it also is asso- r - * < _ ... - and, in particular, the minimalist refinement of it that I will eventually ciated with a greater dispersion of advantage? Or a higher sum of advan- focus on-travels light. Less ambitious in its explanatory claims, mini- tage, even if the average is lower?

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